Sergei Orlov

The creative experience of one family, passed on unnoticeably but unfailingly, first to children and then to grandchildren and yet further, is an organic linkage that ensures cultural continuity across time. In Russia, the phenomenon made itself powerfully felt in the art of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Later, under the impact of historical trauma, it was rather interrupted and broken, and it was not until the last three or four decades of the 20th century that the process of its restoration began; it seems likely that in the future such artistic dynasties will continue to play a significant role.

"Seeing" means not just looking, but contemplating and comprehending the world around us. "Hearing sounds" means not just listening, but joining in with the rhythms, the very soundings of the Universe. That is close to how the legendary Lao Tzu defined the true nature of sight and hearing in his poetic treatise Tao Te Ching ("A Book about Way and Power"). The sage believed meditation allows a man to relieve his mind of everyday thoughts and troubles, to go beyond the material world in his consciousness, achieving the boundaries of the immense world of natural phenomena.

A solo exhibition of the Moscow-based sculptor Viktor Korneev, an art project distinguished by its elaborate conceptual frame¬work and original execution, runs at the Tretyakov Gallery's Engineering wing from September 1 to October 30 2011.

Weight and weightlessness are physical – and also philosophical – categories. All the heaviest and lightest things have their pronounced philosophy. Weights and a road roller are the Caesar and Augustus of the “Empire of Weight”. Allied to it is the “Empire of Imponderability”, the heroes of which are paper aeroplanes and boats, champagne bubbles and fluff from poplars flying into your face.